A variety of spinal injuries and deformities can occur due to trauma, disease, or congenital effects. These injuries and diseases can, ultimately, result in the destruction of one or more vertebral bodies and lead to a vertebrectomy or corpectomy in which the one or more damaged vertebral bodies and their adjacent discs are excised. Reconstruction of the spine following the vertebrectomy can present a number of challenges for the surgeon.
One surgical concern is securely interposing a vertebral implant between the remaining rostral and caudal vertebral bodies to allow the implant to resist dynamic loads, including axial, torsional, and shear loading, without undue subsidence or damage to the adjacent vertebral endplates. Therefore, a vertebral implant assembly is needed that can be installed with minimal injury to surrounding structures and that comprises durable components for dampening the affect of dynamic loading on the spine.